The Crying Field
Environment: During the day, a DC 20 Listen check is suffi cient to hear the sounds of past battles; on ordinary nights the DC drops to 15. On the night of the full moon, hearing the battle is automatic—it’s a real battle at that point, not just the distant echo of past clashes. When the moon is full, characters can see clearly for 60 feet, and they can peer through concealing shadows for another 60 feet; characters with lowlight vision can see 120 feet, plus another 120 feet in shadows. The prevailing Aundair weather applies in the Crying Fields on full-moon nights, although the undead soldiers largely ignore weather. The magical transformation that turns the Crying Fields into an undead battlefi eld suffuses the entire area with a strong aura of necromancy. Terrain: The Crying Fields are battlefield terrain (p.91DMG) Features *'Fortifications:' Walls, trenches, and berms appear in the night.(p91DMG) *'Graves:'Graveyards have gravestones every 10 feet. Standing in a square with a gravestone gives you a +2 bonus to Armor Class and a +1 bonus on Refl ex saves (these bonuses don’t stack with cover bonuses from other sources). The presence of a gravestone doesn’t otherwise affect a creature’s fi ghting space.Crypts and monuments are generally windowless 10- or 20-foot-square stone buildings, sometimes with a basement level. Monuments have open doorways so visitors can see the statuary and inscriptions, but crypts are kept locked (with a DC 20 or 30 lock). Some 50% of crypts have a CR 7 to CR 10 trap to keep grave robbers out; those that don’t have traps were looted decades ago.The undead soldiers that fight on the Crying Fields emerge from the night itself, not from specific crypts. But the undead fi ght tenaciously to seize and hold graves belonging to their side. *'Funeral Pyres:'The pyres burn throughout the night, casting bright illumination for 200 feet in every direction.They also have treasure (described below) that makes them a target for treasure hunters willing to risk the wrath of the undead. Encounters CRYING FIELDS ENCOUNTERS d% Encounter Average EL 01–11 1 charnel hound 13 12–18 1 lich 11th-level wizard 13 19–30 1d3 wraiths, dread 13 31–39 1d4+4 bodaks 12 40–47 1 devourer 11 48–55 1 half-celestial 9th-level paladin 11 56–63 1 half-fi end 7th-level cleric, 1 bone devil 11 64–73 1 retriever 11 74–82 1d4+4 spectres 11 83–94 1d4+4 vampires, 5th-level human fi ghters 11 95–100 1d3 shadows, greater 10 Treasure Each funeral pyre has a rich array of gifts for the afterlife—a double standard treasure for a CR 12 encounter. Reroll any results that give you fl ammable treasure, such as scrolls or tomes. HISTORY - Knowledge (local) check Crying Fields to learn more about the place. DC 10: The Crying Fields are a place in southern Aundair near Thrane where a number of battles were fought during the Last War. DC 15: No one goes there anymore except to honor the dead soldiers buried there. It’s said you can still hear the sounds of battles if you stand in the Crying Fields and listen. DC 20: Every month when the moon is full, those who died on the Crying Fields are returned to life as undead horrors, and they battle each other until sunrise. DC 30: The undead hate the living, but even more they hate undead who wear the uniforms of their enemies in life. They venerate fallen heroes with funeral pyres, many of which have rich treasures atop them. A DC 15 Knowledge (history) check is suffi cient to know details of the fi ve battles that took place on what is now the Crying Fields: the strategic circumstances, the units involved, and individual acts of heroism great enough to become folklore. Category:Aundair